China’s population to reach 1.45 billion by 2030

Beijing, March 12 (IANS) China’s population is expected to peak at 1.45 billion in 2030, then drop to 1.4 billion by 2050 and to 1.1 billion by the end of this century, authorities said.

Wang Pei’an, deputy head of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, released the numbers at a press conference during the ongoing two sessions in Beijing, reported the Global Times.

“China does not lack in population, not in a few decades, not in 100 years,” said Wang, who added the country should focus more on demographics and education levels.

According to Wang, China’s working age population, of those between 15 and 64 years old, is a little over one billion and accounts for 73 per cent of the total population.

The working age population will gradually drop to 985 million in 2020 and to around 800 million by 2050, according to the report.

In comparison, the working age population accounts for 66 per cent of the total population in the US, 67 per cent in Europe and 61 per cent in Japan.

“Although the total working age population in developed countries in the US and Europe is around 730 million, which is less than our 1 billion, they have a much higher productivity rate,” Wang said, noting the drop in workers will be compensated by advances in technology.

In January 2016, China relaxed its decade-long birth control policy, allowing couples to have a second child if one of the parents has no siblings.

Wang noted that following the second-child policy, a total of 18.46 million births were recorded across China in 2016. The number is the largest since 2000 and is 2 million more than past averages.

According to Wang, China’s second-child policy applies to some 90 million people but only 28 per cent are likely to have a second child.

China expects the average yearly number of births to vary between 17 million and 19 million from now to 2020, Wang added.